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2017 PM Society Awards Report

VCCP Health sweeps the board with a record 10 Golds

LEO and Teva are the top pharma companies recognised

The 32nd annual PM Society Awards, announced at the Grosvenor House on 2nd February saw a record number of Golds won by a single agency – VCCP Health. They scooped an amazing 10 Golds plus 3 Silvers and 3 Bronze awards. Other successful agencies were Havas Lynx with two Golds as well as five Silvers, and Lime taking two Golds. CDM London, H4B Manchester, Life, McCann Health, Solaris Health & Watchable and vivacity each took one Gold Award.

LEO Pharma won an impressive 6 Gold Awards, making them top of the pharma charts overall. Teva Pharmaceuticals received 5 Golds and the most awards overall with 12 in total. Dexcom took 2 Golds and single Gold winners included Mylan, Roche/Chugai, Sanofi Genzyme, Pfizer, GSK and Aimmune.

The event was skilfully hosted by Alan Carr in combination with comedians Kerry Godliman and Tom Ward and everyone’s favourite voice, Alan Dedicoat, the voice of Strictly. Although VCCP Health walked away with a record haul of gongs it was fantastic to see 25 different agencies coming away with at least one Bronze award out of the 33 agencies represented.

This ceremony also saw a special presentation to the PM Society’s Vivien Bennett who has worked behind the scenes organising the event since it began in the late 80s. Awards Chairman Neil Smith, who has worked with Vivien on the event for over 18 of those years, called her on stage to thank her in front of the crowd and to say farewell to one of the industry’s legends.

About this year’s competition, Smith said “This year saw a wide and diverse range of some 284 entries from no fewer than 64 different agencies. Of our 19 different categories, four were new this year including what proved a very popular ‘Best Use of Insight’ award. Digital entries, which accounted for roughly half of the total, could be viewed at the event on our self-selecting video screens, alongside our popular print exhibition. After 18 years I remain very proud of this event which still draws the biggest crowd in the industry calendar.”

Head Judge Tracey Brader commented: “There were some amazing entries this year, some were incredibly well crafted which made them justifiable winners while others stood out for breaking new ground. For me the addition of the ‘Best Use of Insight’ award marked an evolution in the craft celebrated by the PM Society Awards and the Best of Show winner ‘Give Nothing to Psoriasis’ by VCCP Health for LEO Pharma demonstrated how insight and creativity coming together can really lead to emotionally challenging and thought-provoking work.”

The PM Society Awards recognise creativity, impact and innovation across pharmaceutical and healthcare advertising and communications. They are still unique in including 5 Target Awards that are judged by nationwide online surveys of healthcare professionals or pharmaceutical executives – the “targets” of the work. Other categories are judged by panels of Creative Agency and Industry experts.